Russia-backed separatists have mounted ten attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another one as wounded in action (WIA), the press center of the Ukrainian Army Headquarters has reported.
“Over the past day, Russian-backed separatists have intensively used weapons samples banned by Minsk agreements – large-caliber artillery systems and heavy mortars,” the Ukrainian Military staff said on Facebook on February 16 morning.
In the Luhansk sector, separatists repeatedly opened fire from 82mm mortars, heavy machine guns and infantry fighting vehicles near the village of Luhanske.
In the Donetsk sector, the epicenter of fire tension was the Mariupol sector. In particular, separatists were active near the village of Vodiane. Here, Russia-backed separatists used 122mm artillery systems and 120mm mortars. Separatists also fired from grenade launchers, small arms and infantry fighting vehicles. Moreover, mortars of various calibers were used against our fortified positions near the villages of Pavlopil, Chermalyk and Shyrokyne. In addition, the Russian-backed separatists employed 82mm mortars and grenade launchers against the Ukrainian fortified positions near the village of Taramchuk and Butovka coal mine.
